Welcome to your AI education digest, where we turn the firehose of AI news into manageable sips of what matters most. This week, we're exploring everything from AI-powered Minecraft clones to a more refined definition of AI literacy for higher education.

What’s brewing this week

• ✍️ A writing tutor prompt that helps students improve their work (without doing it for them)
   

• 🔍 Why AI search tools might not be the Google-killers everyone predicted
   

• 🎮 A video game that generates itself as you play (yes, really)
   

• 🧠 A practical framework for AI literacy that won't make your brain hurt

🎯 Prompt of the Week

Prompt for using AI to help edit writing. Use case for this prompt would be if you require students to do their own writing, but allow them to get feedback from a GenAI tool. Source: Eugenia Novkshanova via this post

I have written a first draft of a summary and I need help improving it step by step. Please act as a tutor and guide me through the revision process in three stages. Do not write or rewrite anything for me; instead, ask questions and give suggestions that allow me to improve my own writing.

Here's how we'll approach the revision:

First Sentence: Review only the first sentence of my summary. Does it clearly include the title of the article, the author's name, and the main idea? If not, ask me questions to help me clarify the details, and guide me through revising this part up to 1-3 times. Do not move on to the next section until I have successfully revised my first sentence to include all necessary information.

Main Points: Once my first sentence is acceptable, focus only on the main points. Have I selected the 4-5 most important points that support the article's main idea? Please ask me questions or provide tips to help me reflect on whether I've chosen the most relevant points. Give me up to 1-3 rounds of feedback to help me refine this section. Again, do not rewrite my points for me—only guide my thinking.

Transitions between Points: Once I've revised my main points, look only at the transitions between my points. Are they meaningful? Do they clearly show how each idea relates to the others and to the main idea of the text? Please ask guiding questions to help me strengthen the flow between points, and provide feedback until my transitions are strong, without rewriting them for me. Make sure to stay within each step until it's fully revised. Please be clear that you are here to tutor and guide me, but you cannot write for me or give me any pre-written content, as that would be cheating. To begin our tutoring session, prompt me with "Please give me your summary."

🔍AI App Spotlight

This week, I want to revisit AI supported search (e.g. Perplexity and ChatGPT search) because there has been a lot of reaction, evaluation, excitement, disappointment, and hand-wringing around these tools. Some people see these tools as the end of Google, while others point to the many hallucinations Perplexity and ChatGPT Search still produce

I appreciate Nick Potkalitsky's take focused which is focused on education and recommends developing an AI search literacy framework that supports AI search as a starting point for inquiry, teaches verification strategies, sets guidelines, and helps students understand the difference between inquisitive AI and generative AI.

📰AI News of the Week

• The first Real-Time generative AI open world video game. Trained on hours of Minecraft play, this game looks like a Minecraft clone. The twist is that the game is being generated by AI one frame at a time as you play.
   

• What I'm reading: AI Snake Oil. Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor cut through the hype to show what AI can and can't do, helping readers spot snake oil products while revealing AI's actual risks in education, healthcare, and beyond.
   

• The open source generative AI tool Llama (from Meta) has been used by the Chinese People's Liberation army to develop an AI model for military use. This violates the terms of use of Llama, but it just shows you how little control you have when you release an AI tool as open source. Shortly after this report, Meta announced a shift in their policies that it will allow US government and defense contractors to use its models for military use.
   

• AI copyright wars show no signs of dying down.

  • 35,000 Artists sign statement on AI training: "The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted"

  • WSJ and New York Post are suing Perplexity claiming "Perplexity perpetrates an abuse of intellectual property that harms journalists, writers, publishers and News Corp"

  • Perplexity's Reply: "They prefer to live in a world where publicly reported facts are owned by corporations, and no one can do anything with those publicly reported facts without paying a toll."

   

• Top 10 generative AI for Work Tools October 2024

  1. ChatGPT

  2. Canva AI Suite

  3. Quillbot

  4. Google Gemini

  5. Perplexity

  6. Suno

  7. Claude

  8. GitHub Copilot

  9. Poe

  10. Grammarly

   

• Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. What does this mean for AI? One big clue that AI development will face fewer federal regulations is that Trump has promised to cancel President Biden's AI Executive Order that set a few standards for AI safety and security.

AI Powered Pedagogy 👩‍🏫

• Our favourite educational AI super-user, Ethan Mollick is at it again. These reusable prompting templates to support your teaching can be used to create quizzes, lesson plans and syllabi and can be refined and improved over time. The process involves using GenAI to help you create the blueprint. Remember, that your expertise still remains crucial in reviewing and refining the AI output.
   

• GenAI in Teaching and Learning Toolkit from BCCampus. Subtitled "The Least you Need to Know" is still a work in progress. Of the three sections planned (1) GenAI Basics, 2) Ethical and Cretive Use, 3) Reflection, Response and Creation to Flourish with GenAI), only part 1 is complete...looking forward to reading more.
   

• The two papers linked below explore potential long term impacts of using GenAI to support learning and creativity. They both identify the benefits, at least in the short term, but raise concerns about relying on GenAI in the long term.

  • Human Creativity in the Age of AI: Two large scale experiments to test for divergent thinking and convergent thinking showed that GenAI provided short term benefits. But then when GenAI was taken away, performance decreased significantly (fewer original ideas, apparent disruption of thought process toward an "aha" moment, and decline in self-perceived creativity). The authors suggest that to foster creativity minimizing over-reliance on LLMs should be used as "coaches" to guide and support users in navigating creative challenges instead of just providing answers.

  • Impact of AI assistance on student Agency: This experiment looked at a similar effect of over-reliance on gen AI for learning. Again, performance (writing) improved with AI assistance, but students seemed to rely too much on the AI and that they were not actually learning. The paper suggests "striking a balance between AI assistance and fostering student agency...to ensure that students actively participate in their own learning journey", but frustratingly (since this research is so new) does not provide guidance in how to do that.

The mAIn Event: Defining AI Literacy

AI literacy is a very broad term, because AI is a very broad term. There are many, many different types of AI. Generative AI is only one of them. Even though AI literacy can mean many different things, when I talk about AI literacy, 99% of the time, I mean generative AI literacy. And even more specifically, generative AI literacy in the context of an institute of higher education. With that in mind, I would like lay out what I think the key knowledge and skills needed by students and educators to become AI literate.

Don't be overwhelmed by this comprehensive list. To effectively inhabit this world with generative AI, you do not need to obtain all of these skills immediately. Consistently working with and reflecting on your own use of generative AI tools will put you ahead of most people and eventually lead you through all four levels of AI literacy

I'm presenting these skills in the form of a set of learning outcomes for a course on AI literacy because I am currently building such of a coures. My vision for this course is that it would be in the form of modules for an LMS that you could either work through yourself or import into your own course for students to use.

In summary, the four levels of AI literacy are:

1. Understanding Generative AI: Build a solid foundation in AI concepts, capabilities, and limitations

2. Using and Applying Generative AI: Develop practical skills to effectively use AI tools, focusing on prompt engineering, tool selection, and real-world applications in your field

3. Analyzing and Evaluating Generative AI: Critically assess AI systems' effectiveness, ethical implications, and potential impacts to make informed decisions about their implementation

4. Collaborating, Creating, and even Disrupting with Generative AI: Transform your field with innovative AI solutions, establishing ethical frameworks, and leading strategic AI initiatives that drive meaningful change

Understanding Generative AI

1. You will explore how Generative AI tools work and how they differ from other AI technologies so that you can build a solid foundation in AI concepts and confidently navigate the AI landscape.
   Success Criteria: explain the core mechanisms of Generative AI and distinguish its features from other forms of AI.

2. You will examine the potential and limitations of Generative AI so that you can make informed decisions about its applications in various fields.
   Success Criteria: assess where Generative AI can be effectively implemented and recognize situations where it may not be suitable.

3. You will explore the ethical concerns of Generative AI so that you can engage thoughtfully in discussions about ethical dilemmas with generative AI.
   Success Criteria: identify ethical issues such as bias and privacy and discuss how they affect both education and your future industry

4. You will examine the environmental and social impacts of Generative AI so that you can comprehend its broader implications on society and the planet
   Success Criteria: Identify significant environmental and societal consequences of large scale AI deployment and explain how these factors interrelate and influence the sustainable development of AI technologies

Use and Apply Generative AI

1. You will gain hands-on experience with Generative AI platforms so that you can effectively interact with these tools.
   Success Criteria: Use prompting and other skills to create desired outputs from generative AI tools

2. You will experiment with various Generative AI tools so that you can select appropriate ones for specific tasks in education and in your field.
   Success Criteria: compare GenAI tools and select the most appropriate ones for specific tasks in your field

3. You will identify applications of Generative AI in your future professional role so that you can gain a competitive edge in the job market through AI literacy.
   Success Criteria: Articulate how Generative AI can enhance your job performance and propose practical uses within your industry

Analyze and Evaluate AI

1. You will critically analyze Generative AI systems relevant to your field so that you can evaluate their suitability, impact, and long term implications.
   Success Criteria: Effectively assessing AI tools and explaining their potential benefits and drawbacks

2. You will examine ethical challenges in education and your field associated with Generative AI, so that you can develop strategies to address these issues in educational and professional professional settings.
   Success Criteria: Identify ethical dilemmas involving AI and develop strategies to address them.

3. You will report accurately on AI-related developments so that you can keep your peers informed about important changes in the field.
   Success Criteria: Create clear summaries of AI advancements and discuss their implications confidently with others.

Synthesize AI Knowledge (Collaborate, Create, and even Disrupt)

1. You will develop comprehensive strategies for implementing AI in specific contexts so that you can drive innovation in that context.
   Success Criteria: Create a detailed implementation plan for an AI project.

2. You will design ethical guidelines for AI use in specific scenarios so that you can ensure responsible technology implementation in your professional practice.
   Success Criteria: Produce a set of actionable ethical guidelines that can be adopted within your industry or organization.

3. You will create frameworks to assess the impact of AI across different fields so that you can inform decision-making processes and contribute to policy development.
   Success Criteria: Develop assessment models that effectively measure AI's influence on various industry aspects or societal factors.